Don’t Let Your SME Be Brought Down In Flames!

And what better way to do this than by establishing your own business? Many salaried workers grow frustrated not only by their jobs but the lack of opportunity within their chosen sector. They have been raised to believe in meritocracy and that hard work and persistence pay dividends.

Yet they spend years going above and beyond, putting in unpaid overtime and making themselves indispensable to their line managers only for their wages to stagnate and their career prospects dwindle with every passing year. In this culture, it’s little wonder that so many make the decision to cut out the middle man altogether and aset up their own businesses as a means of reinvigorating their careers and taking back control of their finances as they strive for financial security on their own terms.

Before you start trading your thoughts may be filled with ideas for branding, product lines, services and marketing ideas. But in your zeal to get started, don’t forget the important process of risk management. In an uncertain economy, it’s vital that entrepreneurs take steps to insulate themselves from the risks that could bring their business down in flames as soon as it’s established. Risks such as…

Legal disputes

As much as we want to believe that everyone will just love our business, it’s a sad but inevitable fact that the longer you operate, the greater the chance that someone will take legal action against you. With this in mind, it’s important to keep a lawyer like Ogletree Deakins who specializes in small business affairs on speed dial. They can help you to protect your business’ reputation and allow you to remain operative in the unfortunate event that someone makes a claim of any sort against you.

Cyber crime

There was a time when the only criminals small businesses needed to worry about were shoplifters and pickpockets. As our times become more and more technologically advanced, so too do criminals become more and more adept at confounding businesses’ security measures, and compromising their data for personal gain or out of sheer malice.

In this climate, even the humblest of SMEs are expected to employ a range of technological redundancies to protect their data. This is an age where ransomware, Blueborne vulnerability and security scams are realities not just for multinational elites but the humble small business. Make sure that your outsourced IT services include comprehensive security provision for your data; incorporating employ a combination of physical and cloud based storage to allow for double backups to keep sensitive data extra secure.

The IRS

We get it. We really do. When you’re a nascent entrepreneur you’re spinning so many plates that you rarely have a moment to think. What’s more, that first year of trading is likely to be a tumultuous affair where your personal finances are near impossible to manage. Nonetheless, if you think the IRS will accept this as a legitimate excuse not to meet your tax obligations, think again. Your business should have an accountant, bookkeeper, CPA and a tax lawyer on speed dial to ensure that your business is properly tax compliant and that you’re well prepared in the (unlikely but possible) event of an audit.

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ProFinance Blog is a personal finance blog dedicated to people who want to take control of their finances and secure their future. Here you will find personal stories to inspire you to make better and more informed financial decisions. We aim to help people understand personal finances better and meet the challenge of living comfortably within the budget.